Arcade racing titles are few and far between these days. The days of the old Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2 and Carmageddon have long since past. A ray of sunshine existed for some time with the Flatout series. In addition to your standard arcade formula was a fun mode that involved catapulting your driver out of the car into various targets. The pinnacle of the Flatout series was Ultimate Carnage. Great arcade style racing, smooth progression, hours upon hours of vehicular carnage and fun. When I saw Flatout 3 on Steam, I bought it without question… whoops.
Where UC had a logical tree-style progression through the race and carnage modes, 3 gives you a ridiculous selection of half assed modes. The entire game feels like a B side. Plenty of detailed tracks, plenty of cars, but no balance whatsoever. Every race is a practice in sheer frustration. Vehicles either have control or speed, the AI is absurdly aggressive, some of the tracks are insanely huge, and just about every car you can get does a few percentage of damage to the AI cars while you’ll self destruct after tapping the smallest obstacle.
In short, the game feels rushed, sloppy, and incomplete… not even close to the $30 sticker price that makes me wish Steam had a return policy. If you enjoy a good arcade racer, pick up Flatout Ultimate Carnage, and spare yourself the steaming pungent load of shit that is Flatout 3.